The Stars were not perfect or pretty on Friday, but they were efficient in a game where they had to be, taking a 5-2 win over the struggling Nashville Predators. The victory pushes the Stars to 20-17-3 (43 points), matches their longest winning streak of the season at four games, and sets up a nice showdown with San Jose on Saturday at American Airlines Center.

"We’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves," Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. "Everyday is a battle, every game day, we’re focused. We’re just trying to claw our way into one of those top eight spots."

The new-look Stars, who are 4-1-0 since trading away Derek Roy and Jaromir Jagr at the NHL trade deadline, will get to test their simpler style in a chance to gain more points on Detroit. The Red Wings had a 3-2 shootout loss to Chicago on Friday and now sit just two points ahead of the Stars in eighth place. A win on Saturday, and the Stars could be in eighth place by themselves via the tiebreaker.

It is heady stuff for a team that wasn’t expected to be here.

"The guys have felt that people have written them off, and they haven’t liked that very much," Gulutzan said. "So we just keep playing for each other in that locker room."

The Stars found ways to make just enough good plays against a Nashville team that was both desperate and defeated. After losing four in a row, the Predators decided to send some veterans to early off-season surgery and also decided to call on veteran back-up goalie Chris Mason, who has struggled this season. With Pekka Rinne resting, the Stars feasted on Mason for five goals on 18 shots. Meanwhile, Richard Bachman was solid in pushing his record to 5-3-0 by stopping 26 shots.

"We made some nice plays, and that made it tough for him," said Bachman. "It’s almost tougher, because you don’t get a lot of shots, but then the ones you see are really nice plays."

The Stars used almost the entire roster and did score some pretty goals. Erik Cole had just one shot on goal all game, but it was a titanic blast from the high slot that gave Dallas a 1-0 lead 6:04 into the game. Then, a few minutes later, Ray Whitney scored on a great one-timer from the left circle on the power play off a smooth pass from Alex Goligoski to make it 2-0.

The Predators cut that lead to 2-1 at the end of the first period, but Dallas once again made a huge play to calm things down. This time, the fourth line turned on the jets, and scored in transition. Antoine Roussel pass off the boards to Ryan Garbutt beside him, and Garbutt the slipped a nice pass to Tom Wandell crasing the net. Wandell tipped in a shot to make it 3-1 at the 2:28 mark of the second period.

It was Wandell’s first goal in a year, and it gave the Stars the breathing room they needed. Alex Chiasson then added two goals to make it 5-2, and Bachman held on while giving up one more goal. In the end, Chiasson’s five goals in five games is just a nice sidebar to a much bigger story.

"It’s fun to be a part of it," Bachman said. "Especially when a lot of people counted us out. It’s fun to do this right now."

Bachman said if he has to play again on Saturday, he has no problem with that.

"At this time of year, if it’s back to back or three-in-three, you get yourself up and get ready to go," Bachman said. "Because it’s life or death for us right now."

But life in death in a fun kind of way.

"It just seems like everyone is pulling on the same rope. It seems like we’re firing on all cylinders," said Vernon Fiddler, who had two assist and now has nine points in the last five games. "We still have to get better, but ultimately we got the two points. Now, we have to worry about San Jose."

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